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It works like any plastic. If they are in the mood to build good brood comb they will take to it. If you catch them when they're not really in a comb building mood they may build sidways comb on it or a comb out from the face. Spraying with syrup or syurp with Honey Bee Healthy or other essential oils seems helpful with any plastic.

I think it's the most PERFECT looking plastic foundation I've seen. Some other brands just have a cell wall and nothing inside or just circles and no hexes. This is perfect hexes with the "Y" in the bottom of the cell.http://www.dadant.com/catalog/produc...roducts_id=622

This spring will be the final test. I have yet gotten them to build it out. They accepted other plastics but this stuff was totally rejected. I don't know if it is an issue of too large a step for regression, they don't like the plastic or there just wasn't a strong enough flow on. This spring I will try all 60 frames I have of it. I was hoping to use it for regression since the 4.9 wax foundation has to be destroyed during regression.

I wouldn't destroy the 4.9m wax when regressing. Every step is useful for the next batch of bees. You can put a package on 5.15mm foundation and get the first step without them having to draw it at all.

I never tried one jump from 5.4mm to the 4.9mm plastic. The ones I put on the plastic were already 4.9mm bees. But I believe Barry or Robert (don't remember which) used some for regression. I've either done starter strips or wax dipped PermaComb when I was regressing.

Michael,
Is what you are saying by, don't destroy the comb, that you can use the intermediate staged combs for regressing other hives?

this is my idea, continue regression with the easiest hives. when they are ready to go to 4.9, I will use their use what they were on to regress my other hives so they will not have to draw comb and will be "forced" into slightly smaller cells as an intermediate step. This is what I took you to be suggesting with that last post.
WayaCoyote

Yes, I mean use the intermediate stages of comb sizes to regress other hives so they don't have to draw the comb.

Of course if you get where you have a surplus of 4.9mm comb then you can just use that and regress them in one step. Even the 5.4mm bees will happily USE 4.9mm comb. They just have trouble drawing it.

But it still saves the bees a lot of work GIVING them 5.15mm comb rather than making them draw it.

Also, my goal is always that the core of the brood nest is small cell. I don't care what the two outside frames, that are usually full of honey are. If they queen lays a few larger bees in them, that's what they do naturally too. So you can put that 5.15mm comb on the outside edges of the brood nest with no problems.

I wouldn't throw it away until you have an excess of 4.9mm drawn comb.

&gt;Unfortunately all I have gotten so far is very strange brood nest the is 90 degree off from the foundation and laid in vertical stripes up and down the foundation. Wish I had taken a picture.

I have had that happen with Perco. Two things can help keep that from happening, one is to spray the foundation with syrup and HBH. They tend to clean and polish the syrup off the founation and accept it better once it has been "worked".

The other is to push the frames tightly together.

However, if there is no nectar flow, the chances of them drawing anything well deminish.